In brief

VENTURA

Man shows knife, robs service station

A man with a knife robbed a Ventura gas station early Wednesday, police reported.

Wearing a trench coat and glasses, the robber entered the Chevron gas station at 7700 Telegraph Road at 3 a.m., brandished a knife and demanded money from the clerk, police said.

The clerk ran out of the store, and the robber chased him but could not keep up.

After abandoning the pursuit, the robber returned to the gas station, ripped out the cash register and left.

The clerk called police from a nearby grocery store, but the robber was gone by the time officers arrived, police said.

Anyone with information about the crime should call 339-4394 or make an anonymous call to 385-TALK.

THOUSAND OAKS

CLU plans several services for assembly

California Lutheran University will hold several public worship services beginning today as the Thousand Oaks campus hosts the 20th annual Southwest California Synod Assembly.

The assembly runs through Saturday.

The public is invited to attend the opening worship service at 1 p.m. today in the Soiland Recreation Center, the evening prayer service at 8:30 in Samuelson Chapel, the service of holy communion at 9:30 p.m. Friday in Samuelson Chapel, and the closing worship at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the Soiland Recreation Center.

Nathan Frambach, assistant professor for youth culture and mission at Wartburg Theological Seminary, and the Rev. Karen Ward, pastor of Church of the Apostles in Seattle, will address fellow pastors, voting delegates and members of the 140 congregations that make up the Southwest Region. Guy Erwin, the Belgum chair of confessional theology and a professor of religion at CLU, will offer Bible study courses. Various other classes and workshops will also be offered.

For information, contact the Rev. Melissa Maxwell-Doherty at 493-3228 or Linda LeBlanc at 493-3936.

SANTA PAULA

Power restored after two hour outage

About 2,800 people in Santa Paula lost power for more than two hours, police said Wednesday.

Large portions of the west and southwest sections of town lost power about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, said Lt. Mike Saviers of the Santa Paula Police Department. Power was back by 10:08 p.m.

Representatives of Southern California Edison said they believed that the outage was caused by a problem with a substation, Saviers said.

The energy company did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.